Opinion article | Golden Visa: Has the Government Failed?

Created at the end of 2012, the Golden Visa Portugal Programme contemplated foreign investment for the creation of companies and consequently jobs. After a decade, data shows that this measure has not boosted the country’s economy or reduced the unemployment rate.

Diogo Capela, partner of Lamares, Capela & Associados considers that “if for the Portuguese it is difficult to maintain their companies in activity for several years, for an investor of another nationality who has created a company with the purpose of obtaining the Golden Visa, the level of difficulty increases. Besides the excessive tax burden, they are confronted with difficulties such as, for example, access to credit, language barriers, the interminable bureaucratic process in licensing procedures, or constraints in a labour legislation that is excessively protectionist in relation to workers”.

Read Diogo Capela’s opinion on this subject, published on 12 January in the newspaper Observador.